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Troubleshooting a Windows based PC has many steps. You may try System Restore if you need, or play around with MSConfig utility, or try system recovery, depending on the nature of problem that you’re facing. Among all the commonly-used troubleshooting steps, Safe Mode is one of the most frequently-used ones. Booting your computer up in Safe Mode is something you’d always try if facing some issue with normal start up, even if you don’t know much about what you’re doing. This has been the norm for PC users for years, until Windows 8, where the Safe Mode went missing all of a sudden. Similar to wireless ad-hoc connection in Windows 8, it’s not like this start up mode has been taken out; it’s just been buried deep, and requires some steps to be activated. In this post, we’ll guide you how to boot up a Windows 8 PC in Safe Mode.

There are two approaches to getting Safe Mode in Windows 8. Either you will have a machine that can boot up normally, where it’s much easier to get into Safe Mode, or you will have a computer that is failing to reboot in normal mode, where you will have to rely on Windows 8’s Recovery Console to get the said mode.

Booting Into Safe Mode When Windows Is Running Normally

In this case, all you need to do is make some changes through the MSConfig utility, and the next boot will get the PC up and running in Safe Mode.

Step 1: Press Win+R to get the Run dialog. Type “msconfig” (without the quotes) and launch the utility.

Step 2: In the Boot tab, check Safe boot, followed by the type of Safe Mode that you want to achieve. Hit Apply

That’s it – when you reboot your machine afterwards, it will start up in Safe Mode.

A noteworthy mention at this point is the fact that with this setting, the system will ALWAYS boot up in Safe Mode. If you want to get back to the normal operation, just launch msconfig again, and uncheck the Safe boot option. The next (and subsequent) restarts will get you back to normal Windows 8 environment.

Booting Windows 8 In Safe Mode When PC Is Not Starting

This one is a little tricky, because it takes trial and error (and patience) to launch the Windows 8 ‘recovery mode’ when start up sequence is on going. What you need to do is, past the BIOS splash screen, hold down the Shift key and repeatedly hit the F8 key. Doing so should get you to the recovery mode, but it might take a few tries before you achieve that.

Once the Recovery screen is displayed, click the See advanced repair options button. In the next screen, hit the Troubleshoot button.

The next screen will ask you to restart your PC, after which you’ll see the familiar Advanced Boot Option screen – the same one that’s been around since Windows XP – and you can choose Safe Mode here.

It’s really not clear as to why Microsoft would bury something as useful as Safe Mode so deep and complicated within various screens, but it definitely isn’t convenient, to say the least. Nevertheless, it does exist, and you can definitely achieve it if you know where to look.

Blink is a rendering engine based on WebKit. For now, it will be very similar to what WebKit is, but as it develops over time, I’m sure we will see a number of differences.

One good thing to notice — as outlined in the Developer FAQ on Blink — is that Google won’t be adding any new prefixes, like -blink-border-radius etc.

Instead, it’s chosen the same approach as Mozilla, to instead have developers enable new experimental features in about:flags in Google Chrome. It will, however, support already implemented WebKit prefixes.

It’s a fairly logical move to me, and as I previously outlined, the various options and differences in WebKit are much bigger than most people seem to think.

Google is a business. It aims to be as streamlined and flexible as possible, and this is its way of doing that. I don’t have a problem with that, and I hope it leads to more healthy competition in the web browser rendering engine space.

It also means that all those people saying that WebKit was good for everything when Opera switched to it, defending it as the only rendering engine that mattered were, well, not entirely correct…

I also hope, and believe, there will be fewer voices suggesting that Internet Explorer and Firefox switch to WebKit as well, and understand that different companies have differences approaches.

Finally, it will change the mindset of many web developers who have put an equal sign between WebKit and Web, and especially the mobile web as that. This is good.

WebKit != Web != Mobile Web

but rather

[All rendering engines] == Web == Mobile Web

What does this mean for WebKit’s future?

I think this is by far the most interesting implication.

It’s a big shift for WebKit development, with Google currently having the top number of reviewers. Apple will also need to evaluate its role in WebKit, and what time and efforts it will put in, or any potential changes it has to make.

I also wonder if the result could be that Safari will fall behind other web browsers with far less contributors?

I think, long-term, it will definitely affect iOS and the web browsing experience in general, and I also wonder if other parties using WebKit now will consider Blink. And where contributor loyalty will be.

In April 2010, Steve Jobs published an open letter on Flash on Apple’s official website that he called “Thoughts on Flash”. In it he openly explained why the Cupertino giant had refused to use Flash player on its mobile devices. The Flash vs. HTML5 debate had long been on the lips of developers across the world by then, and this letter fuelled the fire even further. Two years on we’re still reading about the demise of Flash and the rise of HTML5. But is HTML5 really all it’s cracked up to be?

When talking about Flash and HTML5, there are two distinct areas of technology to consider: the PC and the mobile platforms. According to Adobe, 99% of PC browsers are running their Flash Player plug-in. Since Flash is a standalone “plug-in” and not built into a browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer, you’re pretty much guaranteed that you’ll be able to develop a website or game once and use it across different browsers without any problems. Flash is popular for this reason, because it works on just about any browser, and also because it provides an immersive and engaging experience.

According to NetMarketShare, a leading internet technologies market share statistics firm, HTML5-capable browsers have close to 58% browser market share globally but their penetration in emerging market countries like South Africa remains relatively low with less than 40% (older versions of Internet Explorer are still big in these countries). HTML5 is still a moving target in that its specifications are still being developed. It is still largely dependent on the implementation by each browser’s developer, this leads to more work in getting your web application running across the various HTML5 compatible browsers which leads to more time and more cost.

The one problem with Flash is that, over the years, it has gained a bad reputation. When used incorrectly, Flash can be processor intensive and very bandwidth hungry. Also, many developers have used it simply for the sake of using it, inundating the web with annoying site banners, flashy transitions and animations that have no real purpose and have done the Flash Player brand no favours. If Flash isn’t that bad after all, why did the late Steve Jobs think it was “no longer necessary” in 2010? Because, quite simply, it’s not great on mobile, and even Adobe, who developed it, is starting to agree by abandoning the Flash Player for the mobile browser and shifting its focus towards HTML5 as the best solution for creating and deploying content for mobile browsers. Which most agree is where the web is heading.

Having said that, that doesn’t mean HTML5 is the one and only solution for mobile developers. It performs best on an iOS device as Safari has the best HTML5 support at present. The Android operating system is catching up but is not quite there yet, particularly on the performance level. Essentially, when it comes to mobile devices, HTML5 on mobile faces the same setback as it does on a PC: browser compatibility and standards implementation can be an issue.

So what does this mean for apps? The same thing it does for browsers. An app written in HTML5 will perform differently on an Android phone than it does on an iOS device. This is where Flash can come into play.

Adobe AIR, an extension of Flash that allows you to develop and deploy desktop and mobile applications, has introduced huge performance gains, particularly with Adobe®AIR® 3+, which has made Flash development for mobile apps more viable. With Adobe AIR 3+ you can develop your app on a “write once” basis similar to the site’s browser and install the app across different platforms like iOS, Android and the BlackBerry Playbook.

So, is Flash dead yet? The short answer is no. Based on market penetration stats 99% Flash vs 58% HTML5, can you afford to lose the 41% difference?

It’s a good time to be a web developer. As someone who’s been building web applications since the 90s, I can happily say that I don’t think the future of the web has ever looked rosier. There are a number of reasons for that, but chief among them I believe is the recent renaissance in the JavaScript language.

JavaScript is the often maligned, ubiquitous language that all browsers run to perform dynamic, ‘client-side’ behaviour on web pages. It is often maligned because it is lacking in some areas, unusual in others and downright confusing in a few more. It was developed by Brendan Eich in 1995 at Netscape at the start of the first browser wars and, given that competitive environment, has done remarkably well in providing a common platform for web developers to code to.

For many years JavaScript was relegated mostly to simple scripts that performed very basic functions on a page. It was slow and feature poor, and web developers had to resort to proprietary Flash to get anything more complex done. Arguably the turning point came with the birth of AJAX, which was first popularised by the release of Gmail in 2004. Gmail was a major step forward for web applications, providing a rich internet application experience without page refreshes (or Flash!).

From there momentum began to build, but there were still many years of browser improvements to come before JavaScript became fast enough to be relied upon for complex applications. Google continued building out its online productivity suite, but such feats of software engineering were generally seen as far beyond the capabilities of most web developers – the tools were simply not available.

This is no longer the case. In the last year or two the world of JavaScript has come alight, with a plethora of frameworks, libraries and utilities being released that are well documented, well supported and very capable. From the early days of Dojo, to the rise of jQuery, to the current (over?) abundance of JavaScript MVC frameworks, it’s becoming difficult to keep up.

Coding style has received considered attention too, with certain patterns being promoted to protect against some of the more pernicious areas of the language. In fact, a new language called Coffeescripthas arisen which compiles to JavaScript and avoids some of the dangers that JavaScript exposes while providing an alternative syntax for those who prefer, say, Ruby.

Of course the renaissance has not been client-side only, and a similar renaissance has been occurring on the servers. This article would not be complete without a mention of the Ruby on Rails or Grails frameworks, which have promoted concepts such as convention over configuration to increase developer productivity.

JavaScript has not been left out however — Node.js is a server-side JavaScript framework which looks very promising in terms of supporting a large number of clients simultaneously, which we will certainly need to do as mobile phones take to the web in ever-increasing numbers.

A language is only one tool however, and must be supported by other tools to be useful. In this regard the recent rise of HTML5 has been critical and JavaScript developers now have access to advanced facilities across the range of modern browsers, from offline caching to history manipulation, and peripheral communication to complex rendering. Even 3D games are now being written — see this re-incarnation of Quake 3, and this demo of Quake 4!

It’s a world that is moving very quickly, with some of the world’s best and brightest focussing their attention on it backed by smart money. Windows 8’s Metro and smart TVs will provide massive ubiquity in coming years for the JavaScript environment, allowing code reuse across multiple platforms from mobile to desktop to living room.

It’s a good time to be a web developer, and if you’ve been focussing somewhere else for a while it may be worth taking another look at. JavaScript has a modern, grown-up environment to work in, and it means business.

Google is awesome. Yes, there have been questions raised about its new privacy policy and creepy Safari tracking and frankly, it just knows way too much about everyone who has ever created a Google account. But let’s put that aside for a moment and focus on all its cool quirks, shall we?

They’re built into practically every Google product — if you look hard enough, you’ll find that entering the right search term or typing a code can make Google collapse, spin or create fictional characters. Here are 15 easter eggs (hidden, entertaining things developers build into a website or program) for you to discover the next time you’re Googling.

1. Walking to Mordor:

If you’ve ever watched The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (or just seen various versions of the meme) you may never stop laughing at this Google Maps quirk (or maybe it’s just me). If you try to get walking directions from “The Shire” or “Rivendell” to “Mordor” (and ignore the suggestions that pop up), Google will give you the route… and a warning. In other news, according to my Google Maps, Mordor is located just outside Cape Town, South Africa. Nice.

2. Barrel roll:

Endlessly entertaining, this one trended worldwide on Twitter in November. Simply search “do a barrel roll” — if you have Google’s instant results functions enabled, your results page will be spinning before you’ve completed the instruction.

3. 42:

What is 42, you ask? Geez, it’s only the answer to life, the universe and everything. Ok, so if you’ve never read or watched The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you won’t get this one. But Google’s built-in calculator will.

4. Gravity:

If, by any chance, you feeling like searching “Google gravity” and hitting “I’m feeling lucky”, don’t be surprised if Google comes crashing down around you the second you move the mouse.

5. Recursion:

Google pokes fun at its own “did you mean” suggestions if you search recursion (repetition or returning) by questioning your spelling even though you didn’t make a mistake.

6. Klingon:

So “GoogleDaq ylnej” means “Google search”. Hmmm. Who knew? Well, you, if you speak Klingon. Yes, there is a Klingon version of Google. There is also a pirate and Elmer Fudd version, if that’s more your thing.

7. Kerning:

Designers will love this one — kerning is the spacing between letters in a word. When you do a search for kerning, Google changes the spaces between letters in the word ‘kerning’ in all the results. Heehee. You see what they did there?

8. Hello, Nessy:

Picture this: You’re working under a tight deadline, your clock is slowly counting the minutes past 3AM and your coffee and Red Bull combo is failing. The sleep deprivation is starting to affect you — you are starting to see things. You click to your home page, and there, rising gracefully from the dark waves in your iGoogle theme, is the Lochness Monster.

No, you’re not hallucinating — you really did see Nessy. If you are ever awake and online at 3:14 AM (those are the first three digits in Pi, by the way. Gosh, those Google nerds), and have the iGoogle beach theme installed, Nessy will come to visit for a minute. If you’re not an insomniac, you can always just change the timezone on your computer and in your iGoogle settings and just wait until 14 minutes past the hour (I was in Bangkok last night, as far as Google knows).

9. Nagging Rams:

Similar to the ‘recursion’ response, if you search for ‘anagram’ (rearranging the letters in a word to make a new word or phrase, in case you didn’t know), Google rearranges the letters to suggest you were really searching for ‘nag a ram’.

10. Antarctic Penguins:

If you ever want to creep the Antarctic on Google Maps, you may be surprised to find the little orange peg man you drag and drop to change to Google Street View has transformed into a fat little penguin. Awwww.

11. Doodles:

What do you get if you don’t actually search for anything, and just hit ‘I’m feeling lucky’? A catalogue of all the Google doodles — all the way back to 1998. There were just three in that year — there have already been 69 in 2012.

12. Konami ninja:

If you type in the Konami code (a cheat code used in Konami games) in Google Reader, the side panel will turn blue and a cute ninja will appear on the left of your screen. Use your arrow keys and keyboard to enter the code — it’s up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, followed by the letters B and A.

13. Street View team:

Ever wanted to see the people who work at Google doing cool things like Google Street View? Well, if you hop along to the back of the Google offices in Mountain View, you can see them all.

14. Laundry:

There are a lot of things Gmail can do for you — filter spam, flood you with ads, apply a plethora of pretty coloured labels to your messages — but, as yet, it can’t do your laundry. However, it is an option on the ‘suggest a feature’ page for Gmail.

15. Pacman:

It started out as a Google doodle to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Pacman in 2010, but the Google Pacman game was so popular, it was given a permanent home.

16. Zerg rush:

Google “zerg rush” and prepare to defend your browser against hordes of the letter ‘o’ in Google’s logo, which will start to destroy your search results. They’re apparently undefeatable, but you can try to fight them off by clicking on them and share your high score on Google +. For those who aren’t familiar with StarCraft, a ‘zerg rush’ is a tactic where swarms of aliens known as ‘zergs’ descend in multitudes in order to overwhelm their enemies.

17. You’ll never find Chuck Norris

Because Chuck Norris jokes never get old, there is a warning hidden in Google search results to ward off those who dare to attempt to find him. Just search ‘find Chuck Norris’ and hit ‘I’m feeling lucky’ and you’ll see what I mean.